IND vs SA: Who said what after the final of ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025

India Women defeated South Africa Women by 52 runs in ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 final.

India Women Cricket Team outplayed South Africa Women Cricket Team by 52 runs on Sunday (November 2) in the final of ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 to lift the title and script history. In a clash that took place at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai, the Proteas won the toss and opted to field.

Shafali Verma played a crucial knock of 87 runs, etching an opening stand of 104 runs with Smriti Mandhana (45). Jemmimah Rodrigues (24) and Harmanpreet Kaur (20) struggled to come up with big scores, however, Deepti Sharma (58) and Richa Ghosh (34) came up with a solid finish to take the team to a big total of 298/7.

In the chase, South Africa opener and captain Laura Wolvaardt played an impeccable knock of 101 runs, dominating Indian bowlers from the start. However, other batters failed to support her. After the South Africa captain lost her wicket in the 42nd over, India gained control of the match and eventually bowled them out for 246 runs to win the match by 52 runs. Deepti Sharma was star with the ball as she clinched a fabulous five-wicket haul to help India lift their first-ever Women’s World Cup.

Everyone supported me a lot: Shafali Verma after winning Player of the Match

Shafali Verma, who scored a spectacular 87-run knock and clinched two wickets, was adjudged Player of the Match in ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 final. During the post-match presentation, she thanked her teammates for supporting her. Notably, she joined the squad ahead of the semi-finals after Pratika Rawal was ruled out due to an injury.

“Harman was always a supporter. And I think everyone supported me a lot. All the teammates were very welcoming and supportive. The team just opened their hearts and told me to play my game. Not to leave my game. So, I think when you get so much clarity, then you feel very happy,” she said.

“Absolutely. I said in the starting that God has sent me to do something good. And today that was reflected. And I am very happy that we finally won the World Cup. I can’t express it in words. It was difficult but I had confidence in myself. That I will believe in myself. And if I keep myself calm, I can do anything. So that belief and that calmness and my parents had a lot of support. My parents, my friend, my brother. I think everyone had a lot of support,” she added.

I would like to dedicate this trophy to my mom and dad: Deepti Sharma after winning Player of the tournament award

Deepti Sharma, who finished the tournament as the leading wicket-taker with 22 scalps and hit two half-centuries, was awarded Player of the Tournament. She dedicated the award to her parents and revealed that his team was relaxed throughout the game.

“I always enjoy whatever role I have been given. Whatever situation I’m up for it, because I like challenges. I had to play according to the situation today and I enjoyed my role with both bat and ball. I think Laura played a very good innings. But we were not relaxed anywhere. We were very calm. We were always cheering each other up, whatever drinks break or other break we were getting we using that time to discuss plans,” Sharma said.

“And as a batting unit, we were talking that we have to go till the last ball. And as a bowling unit, we have to focus more on our best ball. And we did the same thing. We have won the World Cup. There have been a lot of changes since 2017. And I would like to say that the number of matches and the standards have gone up. I just wanted to say that I would like to dedicate this trophy to my mom and dad,” she added.

This is not the end, just the beginning: Harmanpreet Kaur after leading India Women to ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 title

Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur thanked the crowd and fans for their support for the team throughout the tournament. She also lauded coach Amol Mazumdar and the BCCI for their support, and added that it was the beginning of a new era in Indian women’s cricket.

“I am so grateful for this crowd, they have been really amazing. Thank you for being with us in all our ups and downs. Last game also, we spoke that self-belief was there, even though we lost three back-to-back games. we knew we had something special to turn things around. They stayed positive, we knew what we had to do, everyone was so involved, they were there day and night and this team deserves to be there,” she said.

“Every time, after every World Cup, we were always discussing to cross that line. In the last two years, Amol sir was with the team and he was always telling us to come up with something special, and to keep preparing for the big occasion. We should give credit to the support staff and the BCCI,” she added.

“We did not make too many changes (to our squad), and they really invested in us, and because of everyone, we are standing here. This is the start. We wanted to break this barrier. And our next plan is to make this a habit. We were waiting for it. now this moment has come. So many big occasions are coming, and we want to keep improving. This is not the end, just the beginning,” Harmanpreet concluded.

Couldn’t be prouder of this team: Laura Wolvaardt after the defeat

In the post-match presentation, South Africa captain Wolvaardt said she was proud of his team, who played brilliant cricket in the tournament. The right-handed batter finished as the leading run-scorer in the tournament with 571 runs.

“Couldn’t be prouder of this team. Played some brilliant cricket. Unfortunate to be on the losing side but we’ll definitely grow from this as a group. Did so well to put those bad games behind us. We were either really good or really bad. But for the most part we were really good. Probably didn’t have my best year leading into this World Cup and didn’t have a great start. Probably overthinking wasn’t the best thing,” she stated.

“We were hoping for a little bit more early on (in terms of movement). They were definitely tracking for somewhere around 350. But our back-end was brilliant. She batted superbly (Shafali). Plays very aggressive and when it comes off she can hurt teams. She’s been phenomenal for so many editions of this tournament (Kapp). It’s probably her last one. The whole group wanted to win it for her,” Laura further said.

Meanwhile, India Women won their first-ever ICC title by winning the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025. After finishing at fourth spot in the points table, they came up with brilliant efforts in the knockout games against Australia and South Africa to lift the trophy.

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